Tuesday, 27 August 2013

The Battle of Broken Barrow. Part One.

The first photo shows a pretty clear view of Broken Barrow (you will have to imagine the fog, I need all the cotton wool I have because of the 5 month old). The graveyard hides the secret entrance to the home of Mausolus the Liche with it's extensive library and well appointed laboratory. In one of the graves there lies a rather impressive relic weapon (or so the Daemon-Lord Jeeyofiz would have us believe). Lord Savage and his warband enters from the near end of the path and must exit into the woods opposite to make progress on his journey to the proving grounds. Despite his temporary alliance with Mausolus, Lord Savage has his own set of victory conditions that leave plenty of room for cowardice and treachery on his part. The Orcs live in the next valley across and swarm in from the right of picture. Mausolus and his Undead deployed on the left of the picture.

"Come Vigareux! Grollo! Let us scatter the archers, then we will slip past the rear of the Orc army and be on our way..." ~ Lord Savage.

Mausolus' army consists of 90 skeletons with shields (divided into 4 roughly equal units), 20 zombies, 5 Undead cavalry and a bound Chimaera. The skeleton and zombie units have no standards or anything and though the skeleton models have spears these count as hand weapons.

The next photo shows the Orc horde of Toady Rob'imsum as it crests the ridge and pours into Mausolus' valley.

"Wuns morr! Wuns morr! Inta da vally o deff!" ~ Warboss Rob'imsum.

"Wos Morr gotta do wiv it? Fah Gooork!" ~ Boss Grobhurtz.

The early stages of Warhammer 3rd edition usually benefit from a bit of speeding up. The armies crawl towards each other at a fairly sedentary pace at the best of times so the last thing you want to do is throw too many obstacles in their path. We took a less is more approach to terrain for this 2000 point clash. We said the rocky outcrops offered no movement penalty and only left units unformed if they were charged while halfway across them. We allowed any unit to enter the graveyard in skirmish formation which we GM'd on the fly as appropriate. The trees were never an issue. We moved one model or one rank to show the position of units during our turn then moved up the rest in our opponent's movement phase to save time (must make some new movement trays!).

The armies begin to form battle lines and units face off against their targets. The Undead infantry had to manoeuvre around the graveyard while the cavalry wandered off to the left as a result of stupidity (they were outside of Mausolus' range). This was rectified in the first Undead magic phase as Mausolus boosted his control range to 24".

"Slaves! The enemy lies this way, you will serve me, I am your master!" ~ Mausolus the Liche.

Eventually the armies reach the road. Note that Thantsants' Orcs are still in a rather neat battle line! Yup, we forgot animosity. Again. I guess I owed him after the Battle of Plank Street. It just goes to show how easy it is to forget obvious stuff like that in the excitement of pushing your toys about.

The photo below gives you a squirrel's eye view of the impending carnage. Note the Grenadier Chimaera that has slammed into the Orc regiment just past the Hob-Hounds. That results in a failed fear test and a series of free hacks that sees the Chimaera eat at least 20 Orcs before they make it off the table.

Many thanks Dreamfish. You're absolutely right about with that analysis I think, there can be a lot to remember if you're tryign to do everything by the book. Playing this edition is about getting it as close as possible whilst concentrating on having fun I reckon!

Nice back and forth between the two blogs. Forgetting rules is my middle name. I think the green skins are particularly tough as they have so many things that could effect them each turn. My massive Waagh spent most of its time fighting with itself while my opponents empire troops blasted my formations with a cannon.

The story-telling aspect to war-gaming is my main motivation to take part in the hobby these days so having the opportunity to create double the narrative is fantastic. It's an idea I saw Private Weird and Mouse pull off with spectacular results and I'm thrilled to be able to do something similar.

Forgetting rules is one of the many reasons to have a GM take that responsibility! It's not always possible and it shouldn't prevent a game taking place if you can't get one but it's something to aspire to definitely.

Playing Orcs straight out of the 3rd edition book with no scenario conditions can be tough, borderline pointless against some armies. They benefit massively from the clever use of their Shaman's magic but even so it's wise not to rely on this, because then you are just like the opponent who relies on his cannon and the arms race that can occur in any edition of Warhammer becomes a bit unsatisfying for many I think it's fair to say! I would say try playing a sneaky Orc ambush with your opponents artillery limbered up and useless. Another week have him assault an Orc encampment that has lots of cover. Another idea would be to simply ignore animosity because you want a week off from it! Trade these ideas for some your mates want to try out and see how you get on.

I am a born-again responsible gamer. My conquest of the Etherweb will be slow, but inevitable.

Mission Statement.

This Blog will be used to revolutionise wargaming, succeeding where others have failed. Oh yes it will! I will teach you all the error of your ways and subvert you to my cause. I am on a crusade to bring back the GamesMaster to all tabletop battles. On the way, I will track my wargaming progress project by project and as a whole, bringing projects to completion and moving on to new challenges. I have moved away from the hollow, charmless gaming that has become a kind of standard thanks to our own complacency and develop a gaming style that encompasses the gaming and role-play values of the 80s and early 90s (my youth) whilst going beyond what that era achieved into exhilarating new realms of fun. I will therefore use the Blog to record my battle and keep on the right course with my overall philosophy in the same way as I fortify my discipline with individual projects. I will use the blogging platform to challenge my painting, modelling and photography skills, though I will not allow the pursuit of high standards to interfere with the deadlines I set myself so expect a mixture of different quality paint jobs, photos et cetera. The aspiration to perfection is always a long term goal, so get stuff done in the mean time. The blog will come in handy for insurance purposes, tremble in fear claims negotiators. I promise not to use the Blog as a vacuous diary, sharing a life which though personally gratifying is possibly outwardly dull. Though I am pretty neat. I will utilise gentle humour often, as is my way, without descending into constant joke-telling. I will not shy away from subtle adult humour and occasional vulgarity (this will not include serious swear words however) though only rarely and in always in context. This is because I like my wargaming to have a moral awareness of it’s real life counterpart (war) in amongst all the fun times. I will not post whilst drunk. I will never review movies, books or anything else for that matter though I may recommend stuff for gaming inspiration purposes and talk about a fun time I had doing something that linked to my gaming activities. I will strive to avoid discussing the world in absolute terms, accepting rather that reality is in the eye of the beholder and that maturity acknowledges variety. I want the hobby to be inclusive and will avoid misogynistic blogger staples such as using pictures of ladies breasts to liven up mediocre posts. I will ask you now once, for the first and last time, to comment and follow if you feel able as these signs of recognition are greatly appreciated. I will never again seek any acclamation for what I’m doing. As a final point, I will make it clear that I thinkGamers, us, ourselves, are responsible for the state of wargaming, NOT Games Workshop, Wizards of the Coast et cetera who despite being in the grasp of vile corporate vampires actually carry out, diligently and with dignity, a worthy and thankless task. If anything goes downhill people are far too quick to blame the governing body, when they should be taking personal responsibility first and foremost. Wargamers of the world, the time for excuses is past, it is time to have incredible fun!